Why would Google give us access to remarketing lists?

Google’s aim is to be useful to their users so that they keep using their services. Therefore, this decision is probably due to the abuse of remarketing lists where advertisers show low quality ads at the wrong time to the wrong audience.

No one wants to see a flashing ad, telling them to “buy right now!” with no reason whatsoever and no added value as they’re browsing the internet for something completely unrelated. Also, it is infuriating when you’ve just bought something on a website and then see an ad for the same product with a discount.

How to get around it?

I don’t think there’s a way around it. If someone wants to unsubscribe from your list, they can, and they will. But is it such a big problem?

Let go of users who are not interested

If someone is not interested in what you have to offer, why spend money on them? They don’t want to see you so respect that. Don’t force it or

it will give them a reason to spread negative feedback about your business. Trust me, an indifferent consumer is better than an angry one.

Focus on the people who want to hear from you because they’ll be more likely to convert. Your cost per conversion will go down and your ROI will be higher. Be more efficient in picking your battles.

Be useful to users

What are you promoting on your remarketing ads? Which part of the customer journey is your audience in when you’re showing your ads? Are they browsing, shopping or ready to purchase? These questions are extremely important because they will help you to put the right message in front of these people and therefore, you’ll have more chances of drawing attention.

If you’re targeting people who visited a specific part of your website recently, show them interesting content on the same subject. A blog with tips on how to solve a problem related to that subject or a complete guide that they can download to know everything about a specific theme. The bonus about promoting the guide is that they might give you their contact details, so you’ll be able to send them some more interesting content to help them make a decision.

Think about where they’ve been on your website and which actions they’ve taken to try and figure out where they are in the customer journey. Then, show them relevant, interesting content and they will probably not want to mute your ads. The key here is to be useful to them, not to your business.

Be creative with your ads

You’re trying to reach people who are browsing the internet, probably looking for something completely different from what you have to offer. You need to stand out.

Don’t use stock pictures of random business people in your ads. They’re boring and they’ve seen it a thousand times already. They’ll be blind to it. Instead, try to think out of the box. Use an image that might clash with the text on first impression but actually makes sense when you read more. For example, one of our B2B clients used an image of a ballerina jumping to promote their ‘flexible’ intranet. Try to have people wonder, how is this image linked to the text?

Success will depend on your industry so keep testing. Maybe your audience might actually prefer more traditional images. Use Google’s AI to test different ads and see which perform best.

Be timely & don’t harass users

Your ad might be amazing and the content you’re promoting might be fantastic, but if it reaches your audience at the wrong time, it’s useless.

Again, think about the customer journey. Someone who visited your website without taking any action will probably be researching their problem when someone who contacted you or downloaded a guide is further down the line when it comes to actually making a purchase. Use audience exclusions to make sure you don’t send a message that’s too generic to someone who’s already interacted with you. You want to personalise your ads as much as possible (without being creepy!).

If you’re a retailer, please, please, do exclude people who bought a specific product from your remarketing list if you’re going to push the same product. You do not want to show them an ad for the exact product they just bought…You’re wasting your impressions and money if they click on it.

In addition, add a frequency cap on your ads to avoid showing users the same ad 100 times in a day. At best, they’ll become blind to it, at worst it will annoy them. Showing the same ad 4 to 5 times a day is more than enough.

So, is remarketing dead?

Remarketing is a powerful tool that allows you to stay in touch with people who have already interacted with your business. Unfortunately, some advertisers have been abusing it and turned this great opportunity into an annoyance for users. Google took action, and I think they were right to. In spite of this, I also believe you can still benefit from remarketing if you really make an effort to be useful for users. Quality, creativity and intelligence are the key to success.

If you’d like some ideas on how you can use remarketing for your business, do get in touch with us and we’ll be delighted to help.